Baby Cat
by The Huntress1
Summary: UPDATED: Just a walk along the sidewalk to reminsce...
1. Our little Angel

Disclaimer: I don't own Batman, Wildcat, Catwoman, DC comics, Dora the Explorer, Get Smart, or anything else I may have missed.

Dear Bruce,

I've watched her.  The way she sticks her tongue out when she's writing her letters.  The way she smiles at me as I come through the door.  How she looks at me as if I'm her whole world.  And I simply cannot turn away.  I've built my whole life on running away.  Running away from home.  Running from the orphanage.  Running from every relationship I've ever had with anyone, good or bad.  Even from you Bruce…  I think of doing it sometimes.  Performing my famous 'disappearing act', but then she calls to me with a nightmare, or she's scared of the thunder and the lightning.  And I simply can't find the want or need to get away.  She, our baby, keeps me grounded.  She keeps me sane.

          Yes, it's true.  She is our daughter together.  Her name is Lila Ava Kyle.  She has your eyes and my hair.  She has a scar in the shape of a heart on her leg from where she fell off the back porch.  Her favorite color right now is yellow.  She likes Dora the Explorer™, and drawing.  Her favorite subject in school is math.  And she reads well for her age.  She's five years old and gives me gray hairs.  She thinks Santa has secret agents tracking her progress throughout the year and thinks that Max from Get Smart™ is cute.  She likes to play "Hurricane" in the bathtub by splashing as much water as possible everywhere.  And lastly, she thinks God controls us all with invisible puppet strings. 

           I know I owe you the explanation of my life for all of this.  I know I hurt you when I slipped out that morning.  But, I simply couldn't handle it all.  It was so overwhelming the way you revealed yourself.  To find out that Batman was really Bruce Wayne, professional idiot was well…  Unexpected.  I want you to know that that was the most completely beautiful night.  How we tended to each other's wounds, both physically and mentally.  You told me that I was the most beautiful woman you'd ever known.  Of course I know this excludes your mother.  But that morning, lying with you in bed, I felt like I was going to let you down.  Somehow, someway.  It scared the be Jesus out of me.  Not only were we finally in each other's arms but, you were expecting something greater of me than I felt I could offer.  I know now that that was foolish of me.  You'd let down all your walls and gates for me and I ran away because I couldn't do the same, or couldn't accept that you had.  I've missed you too much for words since then.  I know I should have let you know everything but I was too scared of facing you "mano y mano"  Well I'm ready to face whatever it is you've got to say to me.  And I promise you that I won't turn away from you this time.  All that I ask is that you don't turn from me.

          I've been here in Brazil for the last few years raising Lila.  She speaks perfect English, Spanish, French, and Italian.  She's never asked about you, but I sense that it is coming soon.  I'm sure you won't be too happy to know that I've enlisted the help of Wildcat to help me when he can.  As I'm sure you know he and I had a relationship a while back, but nothing came of it.  I'll spare you the details of their relationship except to say that they're close, and I won't tolerate you splitting them up just because you have a problem with Ted.  Anyway, hopefully you will reply to this.  Maybe you won't.  But I want you to know that I'll always love you even if it took me three years away to figure it out.

Love,

Selina 


	2. Daddy's Back

Disclaimer:  I don't own Batman, Catwoman, or anyone associated closely with them.  DC has them in their side pocket, and my monthly fees in their back pocket.  I do on the other hand still stake claim in Lila Ava's creation and intend to keep her securely in my left hand.

September 2002

Dear Selina, 

            I…  I'm not sure of how I am supposed to reply to this.  It has been almost six years, and now out of the blue you come at me with this!  Why the hell didn't you tell me you were pregnant, and that we had a daughter?  I would have certainly liked to have been in Lila's life up until now and don't appreciate learning that I wasn't.  There is so much I want to ask you.  Can I see her?  Will you bring her up here to Gotham if I can't get down there?

Where are we Selina?

            As to that night:  I bared my soul to you.  I showed you everything I had to offer to someone I deemed worthy.  It amazes me a woman's ability to pierce deeper and with more pain than one could have ever imagined.  I racked my brain for weeks trying to figure out what I had done wrong.  Did I scare you off somehow..?  Well I guess I got my answer, and another one to boot.  I would expect something like this from Talia, or any of those other women that have vied for my attention over the years.  But, I never gave in to them.  It seems funny now in some harsh, strange way.  I had, contrary to popular belief, never been with a woman before.  Ever.  I haven't been with anyone since then either.  I can't bring myself to even want to _touch another's body.  The thought of exciting sensations that belonged only to you and I felt sickening.  But those feelings will stay buried in me, deep where I store the other pains, until I have time to sit and sort out which goes where, and why I even have to deal with them.  Hopefully I will see you when I see Lila.  Then, maybe we should discuss everything you wrote to me in your previous letter._

Until then,

Bruce


	3. Kicking a dead horse

Kicking a dead horse

**A/N this story is told from the perspective of Dark Victory.  It takes place some ten years in the future**

Selina smiled nervously over her coffee at the beautiful tan face of a man she hadn't seen in five and a half years.  Two of which had been spent trying to convince herself she had made the right decision by leaving him in Gotham and the other three willing herself to at least write to him, tell him of their creation together.

Bruce frowned lightly and made no move to ease her nervous energy.  He was of course delighted in a reserved sense to find they had a child, but the way it came to be more than dampened his feelings about it.

Selina had eventually found the courage to telephone him, asking him to meet her at Delano's on 21st to talk.  She'd given him no specification as to what they were going to discuss or if she'd be bringing Lila with her.  

When she's first arrived, dressed in a fitted black dress and matching sun hat, he'd searched almost desperately for what he guessed was a miniature version of Selina.  Disappointed, he'd stood when she approached the table, but made no gesture of chivalry by pulling out her chair or taking her coat.  He instead sipped his water and nodded to her when she sat down.

"Why didn't you bring her?" he asked bluntly fanning his fingers into a steeple that came to rest against the bridge of his nose.  

Much to Selina's dismay, this obscured a lot of his face from view and made it nearly impossible to read his expressions.  "Don't worry, she's just back at the hotel with her nurse, besides, I wanted to speak with you first."

Bruce averted his eyes to the floor.  Why didn't they just get it all over with already?  Let him meet his daughter like he should have long before.  "Christ Selina, does it have to be this difficult with you?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Selina asked while taking off her hat and setting it along with her purse on her lap.

"You disappear for years, leaving me wondering where the hell you've gone all this time.  I've learn to live without you, which by the way is what I've had to do several times over the course of our relationships because you were insecure or some other thing like that!"

Selina leaned back into the chair, a very dangerous expression appearing onto her face.  "If I'm not mistaken Bruce, I'm not the insecure one…"

Bruce found himself gritting his teeth.  This hadn't been what he expected.  On the way over he'd envisioned Selina apologizing for her stupidity, for running out on him just as he'd managed to create a special place for her within his world.  Not many people found themselves in such a coveted position, and so far it had only been Alfred, Dick, Commissioner Gordon and her.  Now he had to make space for one more: Lila.  "Take me to see her." He said more as a demand than anything else.

"She's not ready yet.  All she knows is that you're her father and that you want to meet her."

"That's it?!" he asked angrily, slamming his fist onto the table and attracting the suspicious gazes of neighboring tables.

"Calm--down--now." Selina said in a controlled tone.  "What am I supposed to say Bruce, 'This is your father Lila, just pretend he was here all along'?"  

"It was never supposed to be like that in the first place!  You weren't supposed to leave!"

"This isn't about Lila at all." Selina said with a mirthless laugh, "This is all about me."

Bruce settled back into his seat, anger creasing his brow, a few strands of hair that never stayed put popped up characteristically on his head.

Selina stared amusedly before letting out a few repressed giggles.

Bruce's frown deepened, "What's so funny?"

"Your hair, I remember it always came out of place in the front, it's happened again."

Bruce ran a hand over his hairline, trying unsuccessfully to push it back down.

"Anyway Bruce, I still don't see how you could ever be surprised."

"Surprised at what?"

"All those piss poor excuses you made, 'Oh, I tried to call, but you didn't pick up.'  You played with me as if I was some kind of toy built for your pleasure and nothing else.  All those nights I needed you to be there, all those promises that things would change between us.  The whole time…  You took me for granted.  You never expected to lose me.  But the second I do what I've been saying and leave you, you act like I ripped a part of you away as well.  _Now after all this time, you finally decide to take some initiative and make me a permanent fixture.  Is it any wonder why I left?"_

Bruce remained silent, contemplating his response.  She was right, it had been unfair of him to treat her as if she were an expendable little bit of his life that he would soon leave behind.  But, she didn't understand.  The mission.  He sighed.  He'd never really expected her to leave him, even when she told him so.  He just kept going, letting that fear toxin get a hold of him the first time, and the reopening of the Holiday case the next.  She had had every right to react like she did.  She had only skipped a step.  She had skipped the part where he treated her like crap, ditching her and then ignoring her and becoming irritable with her when she was around.

Selina stared as Bruce's face changed with each thought.  He was actually digesting what she had told him.  Maybe he _had changed since then.  Maybe he'd had his heart broken a few more times or just blocked everyone else out.  It was probably the latter.  She settled her elbow onto the arm of the chair and rested her chin on her fist as she waited for a response._

Suddenly he bolted out of his chair and came to her side of the table.  "Bruce what are you doing?" she asked startled.

He took both of Selina's hands in his, lowered his head to them and said in a low voice: "I'll forgive you if you forgive me."

Selina smiled, "Well if this isn't kicking a dead horse."

"Selina…"

"Alright Bruce.  Once again you get your way.  Just like always."


	4. Round and 'Round we go part 1

*Disclaimer:  I mean no disrespect in the way Two-Face is used in this part.  Batman, Catwoman, Bruce Wayne, Selina Kyle, Ted Grant, Carmine Falcone, Mario Falcone, Alberto Falcone, Sofia Falcone, Gilda Dent, Harvey Dent, Lucius Fox, and James Gordon belong to DC comics and their individual creators.  Harvey Dent Jr., Marie Dent, and Lila Kyle-Wayne belong to me.  John Steinbeck belongs to himself.*

'Round and 'Round we go (part 1)

Bruce: _I can feel their eyes piercing our skin as we walk down the street.  We aren't any more official than we've ever been in the past.  But it's been a long time since they've seen us together, and they're lapping it up like dogs._

_Selina tempts me to give them a show, give them what they're so obviously asking for.  But I resist.  This isn't what this is about.  No longer is it about a difficult playboy named Bruce Wayne and a classy socialite named Selina Kyle who just happens to find herself at some of the more exclusive Falcone Family gatherings.  Nor is it about the even more difficult Batman and the seductive Catwoman treating the skyscrapers and rooftops as their own personal playground.  This isn't about anything that has happened between us in the past.  Only about the future._

Selina:  _The last time Bruce and I were together was the year that they reopened the Holiday case for the second time.  Bruce was a wreck, Alberto Falcone, although dead, had been proven innocent given recent findings.  Those "findings" had been difficult on everyone, including myself._

_Harvey Dent's wife Gilda had returned from exclusion with a bit of a surprise.  It seemed she'd become pregnant and had, get this, twins.  A boy and a girl.  __Harvey__ even nicknamed them "Yin and Yang."  The rest is kind of shaky, __Harvey__ of course found his wife and children with joy but was torn with the memory of having had an affair with Janice Porter, his one time student, and replacement D.A.  Gilda had forgiven him but…  He couldn't live with the guilt.  How was __Harvey__ supposed to remain "good" if he'd given into the lust as well as Two-Face?  Both can't be guilty at the same time.  So he went home, killed Gilda, his children Harvey Jr. and Marie, and then climbed to the top of the left __Gotham__Twin__Towers__Building__ and in the spirit of John Steinbeck, shot himself to death with a double-barrel rifle.  He took with him the morale of the entire GCPD, especially Commissioner James Gordon, who'd had high hopes of restoring him back to his former personality.  But none was hit harder than Bruce and respectfully Batman.  He, meaning the both of them except in separate ways, spiraled downward even further than had thought possible.  Not only had he lost one of his former closest friends, but later it was found in a suicide note, that Harvey and Gilda together, not Alberto, had murdered all of those people.  _

_Neither the GCPD nor the Batman ever recovered from the blow, and Bruce Wayne shrank back from the public life considerably, leaving Lucius Fox to run his company.  I was the only one besides Alfred he allowed near him.   I, feeling completely suffocated, laid my problems on my brother Mario.  He and I are the only ones left.  Our sister Sofia is dead as well, done in by her own rage.  Mario was the only one I trusted with my feelings.  He'd been the one to connect the dots for me after I found out Carmine Falcone, his father, was my father as well.  He was the only one besides Ted I told when I found out I was pregnant.  He became Lila's godfather and sponsored her baptism.  We speak often but haven't seen each other since I left the country.  I squelch the urge to go see him, opting instead to stay with Bruce and see where this goes._


End file.
